When cable tool water well drilling machinery, often referred to as a spudder, has been used in the past and also currently, after impact drilling operations have been undertaken for a while, they are stopped. Then a large heavy two piece drive clamp is initially clamped in place about a drill stem at the drive clamp receiving planar structures thereof, and the two pieces thereof are tightened together by using their large and heavy bolt and nut fasteners, turned by using a wrench. Also a heavy protective drive head is positioned over the end of the water well casing pipe section. Thereafter, the overall drill string with the drive clamp is raised up and dropped several times to drive the water well casing pipe sections farther into the ground, as the drive clamp impacts the protective drive head. After the completion of this sequence of driving impacts, the drive clamp is loosened and cleared, and the protective drive head is removed and replaced, whenever another water well casing pipe section is added. Thereafter, after this considerable delay, the impact drilling operations are continued. The physical efforts involved in the placement and removal of the drive clamp assembly, and in this repeated tightening and loosening of the drive clamp, and in the placement and removal of the protective drive head, are very strenuously undertaken and become very tiring during a working day.
This interruption of the drilling operations to drive more portions of the water well casing pipe sections down below ground level occurs many times, when a water well is being installed by using cable tool water well drilling machinery. The successful operation of this machinery entirely relies on the vertical movements of the various tools to be used, as these tools are raised, lowered, and/or dropped by using cables manipulated upon the operation of this cable tool water well drilling machinery. The inherent twisting and untwisting of the cable provides the rotative force, which combines with the impacting force, occurring upon the free dropping of the drill string, to make the drill bit effective in drilling the well.
It is believed this interruption of the drilling operations, when cable tool water well drilling machinery is being utilized to drill a well, has always occurred. There has been no water well drilling accessory previously available for use to simultaneously drive water well casing pipe sections, while the cable tool drilling machinery continues to operate to drill the well. As a consequence, this is one of the important reasons why many persons drilling wells have discontinued using cable tool water well drilling machinery, which they often refer to as a spudder.
They are instead using water well drilling machinery, which they refer to as mud rotary, which include power units that directly rotate the drill bit, drill, and drill string, instead of the impacting force operations undertaken when operating cable tool water well drilling machinery. When this more expensive machinery is operating, there are accessories or direct components thereof which are used to drive the water well casing pipe sections more conveniently and often simultaneously, while the drilling continues.
In reference to this mud rotary equipment, in 1980, Messrs. Hank and Kirkpatrick in U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,752, illustrated and described their method and apparatus for driving pipe. The Abstract reads as follows:
"A casing hammer for driving casing while drilling a water well comprises a housing having an annular pneumatic chamber with a relatively lightweight, shortstroke annular piston. The piston is reciprocally driven at a high rate to provide a large number of light blows of controllable energy upon an annular anvil that seals one end of the chamber. Percussive blows upon the anvil are transmitted through a drive head and adapter to the upper end of the pipe to be driven. The hammer is suspended from a rotary drive head that operates a hollow drill string extending downwardly through the hammer and through the casing driven thereby."
Also, in 1985, Leslie N. Larson, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,273, disclosed his drilling rig. He used rotary power to rotate his drill bit, drill rod, and overall drill string. Also, at the same time he used a ram or top head to impart a linear axial force to the overall drill string, to create an overall effective drilling operation.
Then without interfering with this drilling operation, he operated a percussion assembly mounted on the drilling tower to apply a cyclical percussive force to the end of a well casing pipe extending out of the drilled hole. This percussion assembly had a piston, which was rapidly reciprocated, by utilizing high pressure air or another appropriate fluid. The piston was positioned at a location spaced laterally from the axis of the drill rod and it reciprocated cyclically in a direction parallel to the axis of the drill rod.
A lever and a transmission element transferred this percussive force from the lateral location thereof to the end of the well casing. The lever was designed to always accommodate the run of the drill rod, which continued rotating during the drilling operations, which were simultaneously continued, when the well casing was being driven into the ground.
Although water well drilling machinery, such as disclosed in these U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,232,752 and 4,522,273, which supplied a rotary power to the overall drill string, were also provided with components which could be operated simultaneously to impact well casing sections, driving them farther into the ground, it is understood there has not been such like purpose components or accessories provided to be used, when cable tool water well drilling machinery is being operated to drill a water well.